Turkestan

Turkestan, also spelt as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".

Etymology and terminology

Of Persian origin (see -stan), the term "Turkestan" (ترکستان) has never referred to a single national state.Persian geographers first used the word to describe the place of Turkish peoples.

Turkestan was used to describe any place where Turkic peoples lived. Anatolia during Ottoman rule was referred to as Turkestan by Ottoman writers. Azerbaijan was also referred to as Turkestan in Azeri Turkic literature during Safavid rule.

On their way southward during the conquest of Central Asia in the course of the 19th century, the Russians took the city of Turkestan (in present-day Kazakhstan) in 1864. Mistaking its name for that of the entire region, they adopted the appellation of "Turkestan" for their new territory.As of 2015 the term labels a region which is inhabited mainly by Turkic peoples in Central Asia. It includes present-day Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang (East Turkestan or Chinese Turkestan). Many would also include Turkic regions of Russia (Tatarstan and parts of Siberia) as well.

Turkestan (disambiguation)

Turkestan and Turkistan may refer to:

Turkistan (city)

Coordinates: 43°17′N 68°16′E / 43.283°N 68.267°E / 43.283; 68.267

Turkistan (Kazakh: Түркістан), formerly known as Turkestan (Russian: Туркестан; Uzbek: 'Turkiston') is a city in the South Kazakhstan Region of Kazakhstan, near the Syr Darya river. It is situated 160 km (100 mi) north-west of Shymkent on the Trans-Aral Railway between Kyzylorda to the north and Tashkent to the south. Its population has increased within ten years from 102,505 (1999 Census results) to 142,899 (2009 Census results).

History

Turkistan is one of Kazakhstan's historic cities with an archaeological record dating back to the 4th century.

During the Han dynasty it may even have been Beitan, the summer capital of ancient Kangju (康居), which is mentioned in the Hanshu.

It became a commercial centre after the final demise of Otrar, the medieval city whose ruins lie near the Syr Darya to the southeast. Throughout most of the medieval and early-modern period it was known as Yasi or Shavgar and after the 16th-17th centuries as Turkistan or Hazrat, both of which names derive from the title 'Hazrat-i Turkistan', which literally means "the Saint (or Blessed One) of Turkistan" and refers to Khoja Akhmet Yassawi, the Sufi Sheikh of Turkistan, who lived here during the 11th century CE and is buried in the town.